The first national
meeting will begin with a sharing session on Sunday evening, January 11,

8 p.m. Bishop-Elect David
Wolber, of the new Southeast District of the American Lutheran Church,
will speak and be available to advise during our meetings.

January 11-13, 1981. 32
lay and clergy persons gathered at Cross and Crown Lutheran Church,
Atlanta, Ga. representing 14 local Lutheran Cursillo Secretariats
throughout the United States for the purpose of the sharing of a common
interest.

Ron Qualley shared a
letter of greetings from Robert Wood, the Upper Room Cursillo Movement.
The Methodist Community desires a cooperative relationship that will
allow us to benefit from each others’ strengths.

Motion to accept the
following resolution:

"Whereas we, the
undersigned, and others associated with us, desire, for the sake of our
common purposes, to band ourselves together into a National Cursillo
Secretariat for Lutherans; Therefore
be it resolved that we, and
others of like mind who are or may become associated with us,
constitute ourselves into such a Secretariat.

Motion to adopt the
proposed constitution, using the name NATIONAL LUTHERAN CURSILLO
SECRETARIAT, as presented for the adoption and ratification of local
secretariats by 2/3 vote by April 30, 1981. Motion carried.

The motion was made to
accept the following slate of temporary officers:

Spiritual Director - Ed
Simonsen, Rainbow Cursillo, Washington, DC

President - Luther Piel,
Atlanta Luth. Cursillo Move.

Vice President - Robert
Sael, Luth. Cursillo of Central Michigan

Secretary - Martha
Erickson, Cursillo Lute. Community of Minnesota

Treasurer - Greg Steele,
Sonshine Cursillo, Miami, FL

Motion carried.

Letter from Luther Piel,
March, 1981

Incidentally, I still
haven’t received an address for the three Secretariats that
were not represented at our meeting, i.e. Chicago, Panama City, and
Jacksonville.

Several important
considerations were discussed. These included the strong desire to: (1)
stay focused on the Cursillo Method; (2) have Cursillistas go back to
their congregation and be active Christians in their church; (3)
actively use our Lutheran Doctrines; (4) share the Cursillo experience
with Christians of other denominations, both as candidates and team
members; and (5) cooperate with other movements (e.g. Roman Catholic,
Episcopalians, Emmaus). These concerns have become issues because the
National Cursillo Secretariat (Catholic) has said that other movements
should operate under their direction and have all team members and
candidates from a single denomination

We will continue to be a
Lutheran-based movement. We will cooperate and support Emmaus and other
movements, teams, support and candidates. We will look for
opportunities to share printing and material costs and cooperate in
other areas as well.

Joint Meeting with Emmaus
Movement

The Upper Room, after
unsuccessful negotiations with the Executive Director of the Roman
Catholic Movement, has started a new movement called Emmaus. Emmaus
will be based on the Cursillo Method but will be an ecumenical
movement. Emmaus has invited the Lutheran Movement to share with them.

It is hoped that joint
printing of materials and team and candidate will be coordinated and
shared. Pam Gardner, Lay Director of the National Episcopal Movement,
described their activities.

Elections

Elections to the
Executive Committee were conducted and the results are shown below:

An article in "The
Lutheran" of March 19, 1981 is a good general statement of Cursillo.

Next meeting: February
4,5, and 6, 1982 in Columbus, Ohio.

NLS Meeting #3
February 4-6, 1982

Christ Lutheran Church
Columbus, Ohio

The North Carolina East
Group has voted to follow their conscience and remain with the Roman
Catholic Group. We wish our brothers in Christ the best.

On Thursday evening,
Gerry Hughes, Exec. Director of the Roman Catholic National Cursillo
Center in Dallas, Texas, presented us with an overview of their
position on non-denominational versus denominational Cursillos and what
is required to be authorized by them to use the name Cursillo.

Position statement

Inasmuch as those
convened together as the National Lutheran Cursillo Secretariat have
determined the following to be our collective objectives:

1) Renewal should be
consistent with Lutheran Theology and be "Lutheran based."

2) The Authentic Cursillo
Method, as developed by Bishop Juan Hervas, should be maintained.

3) We wish to remain open
to non-Lutheran participation.

4) We wish to provide a
National organization to provide support and basic guidance.

5) We wish to develop and
sustain a relationship to each of the Lutheran bodies.

In that the General
Secretariat of the Roman Catholics has determined that Authentic
Cursillo requires that all team members and all candidates be of the
same denomination and in that one of the objectives of the Lutheran
Community is to allow non-Lutheran participation: is therefore
recommended by the National Lutheran Cursillo Secretariat that a change
in name shall be adopted to allow our objectives to be accomplished.

The executive committee
of the National Secretariat is organized as follows:

...accepts as our norm
the content and method of the Cursillo movement as developed by Bishop
Juan Hervas, Eduardo Bonnin and their friends.

We accept as normative:
the Cursillo method of group reunion and Ultreya, the three-day weekend
of fifteen talks, and the call to Christians to penetrate the world for
Christ.

Notes from National
Secretariat - 2/4/82 - 2/6/82

35 in attendance for
Thurs. evening meeting with Gerry Hughes. He stated there are three
major Cursillos, Latin American, European and English speaking
international Cursillos. He shared concerns of National Catholic
movement which came to the U.S. during Vatican II in 1957. At that time
the Rector’s manual was in Spanish - in 1961 an English
manual was introduced. Movement became ecumenical; it was a very
dynamic movement. In the mid 1960’s the Nat. Secretariat was
asked which way they wanted to go and to develop denominational lines,
which could be adapted to each denomination.

The Catholic Movement is
requiring that all candidates be Catholic, and all team members and
Spiritual leaders also be Catholic. They are asking the Lutheran
Movement to do the same or change our name. Jerry supplied copies of
the Episcopal Articles of Operation, stating we must have Articles of
Operation that we refer to the Lutheran Movement for the base doctrine.

Objectives

1. Remain Lutheran

2. Authentic Cursillo
Method

3. Remain open to
Non-Lutherans

4. Provide National
organization to provide basic guidance to local Secretariat

5. Retain name "Cursillo"

6. Develop relationship
to Lutheran bodies

Motion passed: we remain
Lutheran in name and tradition

Motion passed: authentic
Cursillo method is our main position.

Motion passed: to provide
National organization to provide basic guidance to local Secretariat.

Motion made to remain
open to non-Lutherans. Motion subsequently withdrawn.

Motion passed: to drop
name "Cursillo."

Motion made and seconded
to develop & strengthen relationship to Lutheran. bodies

Motion passed: to remain
open to non-Lutherans.

Motion passed: to adopt
new name.

NLS Meeting #4
July 8-10, 1982

Christ Lutheran Church
Columbus, Ohio

"The National Lutheran
Secretariat might have to become independent of fellowship with the
Catholic movement and change its name; and that the National Lutheran
Cursillo Secretariat pledges itself to maintaining the orthodoxy of the
movement as passed to us by the Catholics."

YesNo

Sonshine Miami North
Carolina East

Gold Coast Ohio

Sonshine North Minnesota

Richmond

District of Columbia

West Virginia Abstain

Michigan Atlanta

Iowa North Carolina West

Nebraska Pittsburgh

Indian River

Sonbeam

Motion to poll the
secretariats, separating the five objectives issue from the name change
issue. Passed

"Does your secretariat
agree with the five objectives as outlined in the national newsletter?"

YesNoAbstain

Sonshine Pittsburgh E.
North Carolina

Gold Coast Minnesota W.
North Carolina

Gulf Coast Ohio

Sonshine North

Atlanta

Richmond

District of Columbia

West Virginia

Michigan

Iowa

Nebraska

Indian River

Sonbeam

By-laws
discussion:
All language will be changed to his/her language to remove sexism.

The body passed the
by-laws unanimously.

February 10-12, 1983 will
be the dates of the next national meeting which will be hosted by the
Sonshine Cursillo movement in Miami.

The
heart and essence of the Cursillo is to bring Christians to a full
awareness of what is meant by living the life of Grace, adding new
strength and vitality to their Christianity. The purpose of the
Cursillo is to develop in Christians a consciousness of their Power and
Mission to become leaders in Christian renewal, and the desire to
continue to live the life of Grace, personally and together with their
brothers and sisters in Christ.

The
Lutheran Cursillo Movement accepts and employs the doctrines of the
Word of God, and of Grace, as confessed by the Evangelical Lutheran
Church. We are committed to the doctrine of "The Priesthood of All
Believers" as a clear statement of God’s intention for His
people to which we have all been called in baptism.

The
Lutheran Cursillo Movement accepts as its norm and guidelines the
content and method of the movement as developed by Bishop Juan Hervas,
Eduardo Bonnin and others, as described in "The Fundamental Ideas of
the Cursillo Movement."

We
accept as normative the Cursillo method of pre-Cursillo, the full
three-day Cursillo weekend undergirded with prayer and the work of they
Holy Spirit using the approved talk outlines, the post-Cursillo
practice of group reunions and ultreyas, and the call to Christians to
penetrate the world for Christ.

Spiritual
Directors need to make a commitment to team meetings and preparations
just as any other team member, if for no other reason than team
formation. They should be encouraged to help critique team Rollos and
to HAVE THEIR OWN ROLLOS CRITIQUED. Treat them as team members with
special skills, just as each team member has special skills for that
weekend.

Leaders:
Material presented by Tom and Judy Kraska broken into two main
categories: 1. Leadership School, team formation, Ultreya 2. Leadership
training or team formation

Third
area added by the Leaders team : 3. Spiritual Directors training.
Leaders material will be edited, printed and distributed soon.

Palanca:
NLS assigned Dot and Larry
Llewellyn to publish a newsletter on the palanca views discussed,
including prayer as primary.

Next
Meeting July 27-28 in Pittsburgh (tentative).

Paul
Fullen presented a plan for successful ultreyas.

"Ultreyas
that Work:" "Progress without
planning can be as frustrating as pushing a chain."

The
keys to successful Ultreyas are prior planning, good organization and
timely execution. The first step is to secure a contact person at the
host church.

The
duties of the contact person in support of the Secretariat’s
Ultreya Coordinator areas follows

I.
Get the date on the church calendar

II.
Decide how much space is necessary for the program

III.
Arrange for refreshments

IV.
Arrange for someone to serve as host/hostess for the event

V.
Ensure bread and wine are available for communion

VI.
Arrange for clean-up of the areas used.

Suggested
Ultreya Program

I.
Opening prayer (Scripture reading)

II.
Singing

III.
Announcements

IV.
Mini-rollo(s)

V.
Small group discussions

VI.
Small group summaries

VII.
Closing circle prayer

VIII.
Refreshments

Duties
of Ultreya Coordinator

I.
Secure speakers (if two - one clergy, one lay)

II.
Plan music

III.
Arrange for babysitter if nursery is available

IV.
Publicize the event

V.
Keep the program on time.

NLS Meeting #8 February 14-16, 1985

Cursillo
Center Columbus, Ohio

Minutes

President
Luther Piel presented five possible options to the NRCC
Secretariat’s proposal:

Option
#1 - Accept licensing from NRCCS.

Option
#2 - Change our name from Cursillo.

Option
#3 - Affiliate with the Methodist "Emmaus" movement.

Option
#4 - Affiliate with the Lutheran "Kogudus" movement.

Option
#5 - Remain Cursillo with no license.

Luther
read a letter from the Montana Lutheran Cursillo Movement expressing
their views on the possible licensing agreement. Letter from Donna
Orthman, Secretary of Montana Lutheran Secretariat: "The Montana
Lutheran Secretariat is extremely happy to be included with the
National Lutheran Secretariat."

Motion
made by Pastor Gene reaffirming the name and purpose of the National
Lutheran Secretariat as stated in the Articles of Incorporation. Passed
unanimously.

Article
II, Section 4 - The annual meeting of the National Lutheran Secretariat
shall be held during the month of February.

Song
Books group recommends that NLS
adopt the "SONGS" songbook as a standard for the NLS; Bev Appleby has
been assigned to develop a design for a NLS
"cross" to be unique for the NLS
member secretariats; Sonshine of Miami has been asked to be the NLS
distribution center for
supplies. Ken Hall will coordinate with Sonshine;